Dog Ninja
by Dragonmuse
Summary: Kakashi/OC romance. A young farmhand and her dogs are transported to the world of ninja while on a morning walk in the forest. Threatened by the violence in their world and unable to communicate, she fights to make a place for her and her dogs to belong. Or failing that, find a way back home.
1. Chapter 1

It was so worth it, getting up at the crack of dawn. I'll never understand how so many people are content to sleep through the best joys in life.

Beams of light shone through tendrils of fog wafting across the field. I stopped to admire the view. Pale purples and yellows deepened to rich coral, then a bloody scarlet. Birds trilled and chirped, their voices growing stronger as the sun rose. The cold numbed my face and the hand gripping Sholpan's leash. My breath made little clouds, and I wondered why dog breath didn't make clouds. Especially when they panted so much.

Sholpan rubbed her slender head against my hand. Her fur was short and slick, until my fingers reached her ears where it was long and silky. I patted her side. Her arching back was level with the bottom of my ribcage. She looked at me with big, dark, pleading eyes that said, _let me off the leash. I promise I'll stay right here._

"Sorry," I said. "You'd be good until a deer or something runs by. Then you'd be over in the next county and so lost we'd never find you."

She dipped her head sideways and grinned, as if to acknowledge the truth where it was spoken.

"You're a good girl." I ruffled the silky black and white curls along her back. "I'll take you to the dog park this afternoon, and you can run all you want."

Boone scrambled ahead, baying at the squirrels scattering before them. His momentum carried him about ten feet up the tree's narrow trunk before brittle limbs broke under his weight and he slid to the ground. I smiled at my old cur dog.

"Nice try Boone." The dog stared up into the tree, quivering with frustration. His tail went round and round in sweeping arcs. I kept walking, tugging Sholpan's leash as she whined at the squirrels. I wished, not for the first time, that she could be trusted off leash. She was born and bred to run across endless windy steppes though. Russian wolfhounds just weren't safe in a world with cars.

My cur dog grudgingly abandoned the squirrel and followed us as we walked further afield.

Boone's tags jingled. He wore a blaze orange collar and a hunting vest. It was bird season, and I didn't want to risk some city slicker idiot with a trigger finger making pot shots at movement in the grass.

The sun was up over the horizon by now. We moved into the trees, ambling along under the dense canopy of leaves arching overhead.

"All right, we should head home now," I said. Better safe than late for work. Boone dashed in close to boop my hand with a wet nose before bounding out again.

I wasn't planning to go far into the trees to start with. The longer we walked, the more worried I got. We couldn't find the meadow. The trees were changing too; thicker trunks, and taller. Something wasn't right. I sat on a damp stump to think. My stomach growled. Man, I hadn't packed much before leaving or even eaten breakfast. That was dumb. And my boss was going to be pissed. I'd already fed the horses, but his kennels still needed the dog crap shoveled out. My dogs crowded into my face, wiggling and slurping their tongues. I pulled the only two granola bars out of my pack.

"Don't be pushy. Both of you, sit."

Sholpan snapped her share up before I could reach my hand out to offer it. Boone's rear wiggled in the leaves, his tail sweeping the dirt bare where he sat. He opened his mouth to take his piece.

He froze.

_Crap. It is a bear? _I slipped a can of mace out of my pocket.

A deafening silence filled the trees.

_No birds. This is bad. Cougar maybe? _My other hand moved to the cell phone in my pocket. No reception. I pulled my hunting knife out and folded it open, just in case.

A low growl started deep in Boone's throat. Sholpan turned her back to me and stood in a half crouch, daring whatever it was to try and attack with her standing there. I strained my ears for a sound, any sound. Nothing. _Probably is a cougar. _I looped Sholpan's leash around my wrist and backed up against a tree trunk.

Boone stood and circled the tree, his hackles up and his lip raised to bare long white teeth. Sholpan added her throaty growls to his.

My arms shook. Boone exploded into the trees with a roar. My heart dropped.

"Boone! Come back!"

A knife slammed into the tree trunk next to me. A scrap of paper fluttered on a bit of string tied to the handle. I stared. A knife. My mouth went dry. It wasn't animals out here.

Sholpan and I tore through the forest after Boone. Giddy with adrenalin, she flew to the end of the leash and dragged me through the trees. My legs fought to keep me upright, half running half skidding on the wet leaves.

A huge explosion shook the forest behind us. A sharp pain pierced my leg. It buckled under me. Sholpan ran faster. Stones and branches pounded me. She ran, dragging me faster and faster through the trees. I screamed at her to stop.

She slammed against something. Snarls ripped through the air. A person screamed. I rolled onto my back and blinked the dirt from my eyes.

My dogs were red. And wet. And fighting someone with every fiber their beings.

Sholpan yelped and staggered. Another thrown knife stuck out of her side. I screamed again, pulled myself upright and slid the leash off my useless throbbing arm. My knife was lost, but the can of mace had made it through.

Some freak wearing a gas mask appeared out of nowhere and ran at Sholpan. I pulled the tab on the pepper spray with my teeth. Aimed it at the monster that hurt my dog.

They screamed in agony and pawed at their eyes. My eyes burned from the vapor. Blinking back tears, I crawled forward to where they collapsed on the ground. _Take this you bastard. _I hooked fingers into the gas mask, struggling keep hold of the can as I pulled it off her face.

_Teach you to hurt my dog, freak. _

A blade flashed.

Searing pain lit up my shoulder. My ears rang. Boone and Sholpan tore into the horrible woman. She struggled. Lots of red blurred my vision. I struggled to breathe before everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

A brown, blood covered dog bounded through the forest. It wore an orange vest. Kakashi squinted at it from a dark treetop. The writing on the vest was romaji. He didn't recognize it as belonging to any group he knew of.

The dog slowed, then froze underneath his tree. Its ears pricked and it lifted its nose into the wind. Then it turned its head and looked up into the branches, straight at him. One eye brown and the other ice blue.

_Damn it. _He pulled out a kunai. This wasn't a Konoha nin-dog. He wavered between killing it outright or capturing it alive to see if he could find out where it came from.

The dog sat. Its head drooped and it let out a warbling half sob.

The area was infested with mist ninja, and they'd gotten into a fight with someone nearby. He'd heard that much happening and came to investigate. As far as he knew, there was no one else from Konoha in the area. Which meant they'd fought someone else.

Any enemy of the mist was a potential ally.

Besides, this was an information gathering mission. He'd already acquired what the Hokage sent him for, but the dog's presence compelled him to investigate further.

He launched himself off the branch. The dog's eyes widened. It skittered backward, growling and shaking.

"Eh, come on. It's all right."

The dog wasn't convinced.

"That's fine, I'll just follow your trail." He turned in the direction the dog came from and inhaled. A brisk wind carried the sharp tang of fresh blood and... pepper? The dog followed him at a respectful distance. He reached out with his senses, searching for traps as he went. Simple trip wired explosives lay here and there, but nothing serious.

He moved swiftly. Three bodies came into view. Corpses.

Two mist ninja, badly mangled. Dog bites. The third he didn't recognize. A giant, strange looking hound lay curled up next to the body.

It lifted a slender, bloody head, wailed, then licked the corpse's hand.

From where he stood, it looked like a civilian. A black haired woman. The hound whimpered again, licked its lips, and gave a feeble tail wag.

It was injured too. He knelt beside it and pulled the kunai from its shoulder. Sighing, the hound nosed his hands and butted its forehead against his chest. There was a leash attached to its collar. And tags. He couldn't read those either. One though, was plain copper with a picture of a tree etched in it. He unclipped the leash and let it drop to the ground.

The brown dog's tags jingled as it trotted up behind him. These had to be civilian dogs. A ninja would at least have muffled their tags.

_But why were the three of them all the way out here? And how did they make it this far before they were attacked?_

He rolled the girl onto her back. Between the cuts, swelling, and bruises, her face was mangled beyond recognition. Clothes were torn and dirty, and her arm looked broken in several places.

The hound licked her face and whined again.

She breathed.

Startled, Kakashi put a hand on her neck. A faint pulse throbbed under his fingers. _She won't last long without a hospital. _He gingerly picked her up, and slung her limp form onto his back with her arms hanging over his shoulders. He cringed inwardly at the way her wrist flopped. _Be glad you're not conscious, lady._

The brown dog balked and growled.

"It's okay. We're going to help her. Follow me. "

With that he set off toward home, jingling tags of the two dogs trailing behind him.


	3. Chapter 3

The woman survived the trip to the hospital at least. Medics had whisked her off to a room as soon as he came through the door. At least with Tsunade back in the village she had a good shot at recovering. Kakashi stole one last backward glance at the towering blue and white building.

Out on the manicured lawn, he crouched in front of the tall hound and examined her collar again. It looked expensive, with good brass for the hardware, soft leather lining, and an ornate black, red and gold brocade ribbon on the outside. The tags jangled. He slipped it over her head and tucked it inside his vest.

She'd kept up surprisingly well on three legs, just tucking the injured one up and running on the good ones. Sometimes running ahead, or spinning in circles, or rolling on the ground in her exuberance. She even had time to ambush a rat and fling it around a few times before making lunch out of it.

He ducked under her midsection and lifted her up across his broad shoulders, long gangly legs hanging past his waist. The hound didn't weigh as much as he thought. She wagged a long white plume of a tail. Something cold and wet stuck in his ear.

"Hey, okay. You're welcome. Let's get you fixed up now." He turned back to the stone steps of the hospital. The dog with the blue eye lay curled in a tight ball against the building, as close as it could smash itself against the wall.

"Blue eye dog, you're welcome to follow us. Your master is safe now."

The dog just stared at him. The wrinkles in its forehead deepened and it sighed. Most of the blood had dried and fallen out of its fur along the way. It just looked filthy now.

"Wait there then. I'll bring food later."

They'd do what they could for the woman at the hospital. Inuzuka Hana was a vet. Hana-san would get the dog straightened out, and maybe know what kind she was. One, two more things and then he could relax. Drop the dog off then see the hokage. No, three. Bring the blue eye dog some food. He set off down the street.

"Kakashi!" a voiced boomed behind him. "What new training has my brilliant rival invented today?" Gai fell in along his blind side. "Oooh! What a cute baby camel!"

"Not training Gai. Just finishing up a mission." The dog lifted her head and wagged her tail.

"Ah, let me accompany you. There is no greater companionship than among friends and rivals! Also, why are you carrying a camel?"

"It's a dog."

"Oh! A new addition to your ninken? I knew it! This one looks special."

At his words her tail started whirling like a fan. She bent her neck at an impossible angle and slurped at Gai's face.

His deep throaty laugh resonated off the surrounding buildings. Several people in the street stared. "It seems this dog likes me," he announced. Kakashi winced at the sound of his fist hitting his palm. "That's it! We'll have a contest to see which one of us the dog likes better!"

"Later Gai. She needs medical treatment, and I should hurry." Chakra reflexively flowed to his legs, propelling him onto the clay tiled roof of a nearby apartment building. From there he sprinted, leaping from building to tree to building again, until he reached the Inuzuka clan home.

Hana's famous Three Haimaru Brothers approached to investigate the new dog. On sniffed the air and wagged his tail slowly. She poked her head out a window, long hair hanging in her face, red tattoos down the middles of her cheeks. "You three stay put." Then to Kakashi, "I'll be right out!"

He stooped and lowered the dog to the ground. She wiggled with excitement, unsure whether to greet the three grey and white dogs watching her or the woman coming down the steps first.

Hana flexed a lean arm and swept her hair into a messy ponytail. "Where'd she come from?" She put a calming hand on the hound's shoulder, fingers moving to rub the tender spot behind her silky ear.

"Near the Kirigakure border. She was wounded by mist ninja."

"I've never seen one of these in person." The hound leaned into her, its eyes crossing with bliss.

"Oh?" Kakashi shifted his gaze back to the dog.

"She looks like a windhound. They hunt by sight. I bet she could outrun my boys right now, even on three legs."

_Interesting. _"Where do they come from?"

Hana knelt next to the hound. Encased in shimmering blue chakra, her hand passed over the wound. She shrugged. "They used to belong only to lords, but not in any nearby countries. Nobody has them that I know of. Does she have an owner?"

Kakashi shook his head and closed his eye. Until the hokage gave clearance, he wouldn't say anything. _Who is she then? And what were they doing there? _Theories spun through his mind, with possibilities ranging from spy to lost princess. That was an awfully fancy collar. But then, the blue eye dog didn't seem like a princess' dog and it was very attached to her. He rubbed the back of his head.

"Can I leave her with you for now? I have some errands to do."

"Sure." Hana ruffled the dog's ears. "Come by later and she should be all patched up."

"Thank you, Hana-san." He flashed a smile behind the mask. "I'll be back soon."

_One down, two to go,_ he thought. He hoped the hokage was busy, and wouldn't be too irritated at him being late.


	4. Chapter 4

Kakashi's stomach let out a loud grumble as he arrived at the Hokage residence. The fire symbol on its polished dome glinted in the mid afternoon sun. He reached for the door. It flung open, out of his grasp. Inside, Kotetsu sagged against the open door and heaved a sigh. "Thank goodness you're here! Hokage-sama's been waiting."

Izumo's head poked out from around a corner at the top of the stairs. His face split with a smile of relief. "It's you! I'll tell the Hokage you're here."

Suddenly dreading the report, Kakashi dragged himself up the stairs. The tart, fruity scent of sake permeated the Hokage's office. Tsunade-sama stood with her hands clasped behind her back, glaring out the window overlooking Konoha. She didn't turn to greet him.

"You're late."

Kakashi bowed, dipping his head to the side to keep the hair out of his eye. He knew better than to give an excuse when she used that voice. "Hokage-sama, the mission was a success. Here is the scroll." He drew the tightly rolled and sealed paper from his vest and held it out. No bigger than his thumb, but the information was crucial to the safety of the village.

Shizune hurried to him, plucked it from his hand, then shuffled over to Tsunade. The blond snatched it from her assistant, broke open the seal, and stared with her critical eye.

"Tch. Bastards. Just as I thought." She strode over to her desk, took a deep swig of sake and sat down. Her nails drummed along the desktop. "What is this about a stranger in the hospital?"

"Oh. You see, uh," he reached up and rubbed the back of his head. "When I was returning from my mission, two mist ninja engaged someone in combat. There wasn't supposed to be anyone from our village in the area so I stopped to investigate. The two ninja were dead, and there was a badly wounded woman. She appeared to be a civilian, and had two dogs with her." He took the collar from his vest and set it in front of her. "One of the dogs was wearing this."

Tsunade-sama slouched at her desk, toying with the extravagant brocade collar. She examined the metal tags in turn, then went back to drumming her nails.

"You say they were in the Kirigakure border forest?"

He nodded.

"Hmm! Shizune!"

The hokage's assistant shuffled forward, clutching her small pink pig. "I want the cipher corps to look into these tags. Locate someone who knows how to read them."

"Y-yes, hokage-sama." She sputtered. A hank of black hair fell over her eyes as she bowed. She swept the collar off the desktop and left.

Tsunade laced her fingers together and rested her elbows on the desk. "Where are the two dogs?"

"I left the injured one with Inuzuka Hana. The other is at the hospital. He wouldn't leave the steps." He looked at the floor. The dog's terror was plain, yet it still wouldn't abandon her. Not even to follow its companion.

"You and Pakkun question the dogs and report back to me. Watch over them for now. Sakura sent word that the woman is still unconscious. We won't get any other answers until she wakes up. Don't allow them free run of the village until we find out more."

"Yes, hokage-sama."

She nodded toward the door. "You may go."

Kakashi jammed his hands in his pockets and walked out the door._ Damn, still two things left._ _No w____a__it, the report makes three again._ He groaned inwardly. Maybe they could interrogate the blue eye dog while it ate.

On his way back to the hospital he stopped at a nearby dumpling shop and left with a box of warm dango in hand. He cut through a secluded alley, pulled down his mask and stuffed a dumpling into his mouth before pulling it back up again.

The hospital came into view. He frowned to himself. The dog was gone.

He stopped short, bit his finger through the mask. His hands flicked through the summoning seals and Pakkun appeared in a poof of smoke.

"Hey." Pakkun looked up at him. "You're going to share that, right?"

Kakashi tossed a dumpling to his friend. "The Hokage wants us to interrogate a dog, but now he's missing."

"Where was he?"

"He laid over by the hospital door for a while."

Pakkun grunted and ambled over to the hospital steps.

"You know he killed some people, right?" Pakkun said.

"I know."

"Okay, just making sure. He went inside the hospital."

Kakashi followed his dog through the lobby, up several flights of stairs to where trauma cases were kept. They passed room after room down a long hall. Pakkun paused, and set his paw on a white door."In here."


	5. Chapter 5

A warm weight rested on my stomach. My entire body ached except that one spot. Boone had been laying on me earlier too, when I first woke up. I tried opening my eyes again. The right one was swelled shut so tight I couldn't even see daylight through the lid. I hoped I hadn't lost it. Soft bandages covered a lot of my face. Not very promising.

My other eyelid cooperated though. The little room was still a blur. A vague memory of daylight and bubblegum pink hair lingered in my head.

Boone's tags were cool and smooth in my hand. I rubbed them between the fingers of my good hand, wondering and worrying about Sholpan. _Please don't let her be lost,_ I prayed. The memory of the knife hitting her side jolted me. _Please don't let her be dead,_ I amended. A sickening weight settled at the pit of my stomach, and I wished someone would come in so I could ask about her.

Right about then I became aware of the voices. Two men's voices, one deep and gravelly, the other smoky and low.

I struggled to turn my throbbing head toward the voices. A stranger wearing a dark mask sat on a chair in my room, open book on his knee. It was the type of mask papa and I used to wear when we'd go out hog hunting on frozen winter mornings. Only this guy had a headband pulled down over one eye, and crazy silver hair. He definitely didn't look like any doctor.

My hand shook as my fingers tightened in Boone's slick hair. Boone looked at me and thumped his tail on the bed.

Another dog sat on the mattress by my feet. It looked like some kind of pug, and wore a blue vest and blue bandana or something tied around its head. The pug opened its mouth, and the deep gravelly man's voice from earlier came out. It even moved its mouth with the sounds. They sounded like words.

_Sweet mother of Stone Cold Austin. How hard did I hit my head?_

I tried convincing myself that the man had spoken. He was wearing a mask after all, the dog's mouth moving was probably a coincidence.

The man looked up and said something in that smoky voice. It put me in mind of chalk on concrete; a soft, mellow surface masking solidity and power. I closed my eye and let my head sink into the pillow. The voices continued. I decided that there had to be a second man standing somewhere I couldn't see.

Their words dribbled through my mind. I lay, uncomprehending. It really didn't sound like English. But then it wasn't Spanish or French either, and there was absolutely no reason I should have gotten picked up by anybody that spoke anything else.

A sudden thought horrified me. How hard _did_ I hit my head? What if I'd damaged something vital, like those people that had a stroke and lost the ability to understand spoken language, but could still think words in their own head? I fought down rising panic and hugged Boone a little tighter with my good arm.

Or, what if it was just really good painkillers? My arm relaxed. That was better. Maybe this masked guy and the talking dog were just hallucinations. But then, why was Boone reacting to them? And if I was on awesome painkillers, why was everything so sore? Boone lay on my arm. His fur was smooth when I petted it down, and prickly when I petted it up. He was warm, and smelled like a rancid mule. At least Boone was real.

My eyelid cracked open a tiny bit. The stranger and dog were still there. Boone was nose to nose with the dog, his tail lightly tapping my leg. And the dog was still talking. I closed my eye again and decided to try and sleep it off, whatever it was.

* * *

The woman's exposed eye had opened, for a few minutes, before she sank back to sleep again.

So far they'd learned the dogs' names and Boone's version of how they came to the Kirigakure forest. It didn't add up. At all. They'd have to question Sholpan next and find out where the holes were.

"Sorry this is taking so long," Pakkun said. "His accent is hard to understand."

"What's her name?" Kakashi asked.

Pakkun conferred with Boone. "He wants to know which one," Pakkun relayed.

Kakashi's brow furrowed. "All of them."

A few more minutes passed. Pakkun faced him again. "He says mostly Mari. Sometimes Miss Témoigner. And his old master called her 'Princess'."

_Princess?_

Kakashi leaned forward. "And who was his old master?"

"Someone called... Pa Pa Cochon? He says that when his master got sick, he was told by Pa Pa Cochon to 'look after his princess', and when he died their clan was dispersed. Boone was sent to live with her and look after her like instructed."

"Hmm. On his tag, what is the tree?"

Boone shook himself and cocked an ear toward them.

"He says it's his clan crest. They were called the Witness Tree Boar Dogs. Before his master died they were famous boar hunters. Everyone in his clan has that tree tattooed in their left ear."

Kakashi reached over and lifted the crusty ear tip. A faded tattoo inside matched the tag.

"Where did they come from?"

The brown dog drew his head up proudly. "The Heart of Acadiana," Pakkun translated. "But Mari came from somewhere called Oregon."

"And Sholpan?" he asked. Best to get as much as he could out of Boone, so they could compare stories and look for inconsistencies.

"She's a puppy. Mari helped a friend when Sholpan's mother was whelping, and she was given to Mari in return."

Kakashi stood and stretched. "Tell him thank you. We should go see if Hana-san is done treating Sholpan and question her too."

* * *

Author's Note:

Thank you so much to everyone who took time to review or started following this story. I'm flying by the seat of my pants on this one, and hoping to give everyone following along a good ride.


	6. Chapter 6

The room was empty. Evening light fell in through the window. I struggled upright, nudged Boone off my lap and swung my legs out of bed. The tiled floor was cold under my bare feet. My left arm and hand were bound with splints and in a sling.

My legs buckled under me while crossing the room, pain shooting through my leg. Red seeped through a bandage around my left calf. I remembered the explosion in the forest.

Boone rolled on his back in the sheets and grunted happily.

_Sholpan._

I had to find out if she was okay.

A chair waited by the window. I lurched toward it, catching my balance on the edge of the seat. Outside, the sun set behind a huge cliff with several faces carved into it, reminiscent of Mount Rushmore.

"Boone?" The tremor in my voice woke him. He was by my side in an instant, licking my hand consolingly. His orange vest was filthy and rumpled so I peeled it off and tossed it on the floor. "Where are we buddy?"

We gazed out the window together. It was high, maybe on the top floor of whatever building this was. Acres of colorful clay tiled rooftops spread out below us.

"We're not in Oregon anymore. That's for sure. Now where's our little Sholpan?"

I'd taken her leash off my arm. That was stupid. Almost as stupid as looping it around my arm to begin with. It wouldn't be broken if not for that. She could have run anywhere by now. She could be dead. My throat tightened and I gripped Boone's neck scruff tight. We had to go find her.

My poor, impulsive, stupid, beautiful, brilliant Sholpan.

One of my clients raised Russian wolfhounds. She'd called me in the dead of night when Sholpan's dam went into labor, desperate for an extra set of hands to help. They tended to have large litters, and she was no exception.

Twelve puppies, but only eleven born alive. I'd toweled off the smallest. Black and white spotted like a cow, only she looked like a gerbil more than anything back then. When I pinched the scruff of her neck she didn't squeal like the others did. She didn't move. She didn't breathe.

I'd just done what papa'd taught me. Cradled her tiny body in my hand and slung my arm in a precise arc to clear the fluid from her lungs. Then spent the next half hour massaging her little chest and puffing my breath against her damp nose. She finally woke up. She lived. Her breeder decided I should have her.

If Boone was my brains, then that dog had my heart.

Boone turned to look at the door seconds before the handle clicked. A girl with bubblegum pink hair walked in. She had to be younger than me by at least five, maybe ten years. A look of surprise registered on her face. She gestured at the bed and yammered something. I made an exaggerated shrugging motion and shook my head.

She pointed more forcefully and her voice rose.

"All right all right! Give me a second," I said.

She pressed her mouth together in a thin line. I ducked back across the space between chair and bed. Boone hopped up with me and curled against my side. She frowned at him.

"Mari?" she asked, pointing at me.

"Um, yeah." I nodded my head and pointed at my self. "Maria."

She pointed at herself now. "Sakura."

"Sakura," I repeated.

She smiled at me now. "Hi," she said, though I had a feeling it didn't mean what it sounded like. She eased me back onto the pillows and went over all the injured parts, poking, prodding, and changing the bandage on my leg with all the efficiency of a charge nurse.

"You don't speak English, do you?"

She blinked at me, her brow furrowed.

"Does anybody here speak English?"

She yammered something else.

"Because I really need to find my dog. It's an emergency. She's hurt and she's missing, and if I don't find her she might die." Panic crept into my voice as I spoke. She put a sympathetic hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off and shook my head. "Paper, can I have some paper?" I made a motion with my hand like writing. She didn't waste any time finding a clipboard for me.

My writing hand was encased in a cast. She steadied the clipboard. I pointed at Boone. "Dog," I said. Then I rendered the crappiest image of a dog in existence. It looked like a three legged horse. I gestured from the picture to Boone. She nodded in understanding. At least, I hoped it was understanding and not pity.

Next was a rendition of Sholpan that resembled a misshapen llama. I held up two fingers. "Two dogs," I said. "I have two dogs."

She pursed her lips and stared at the pictures. I drew a knife stabbing into the Sholpan-llama. A shadow fell across her face and she looked at me, put her hand back on my shoulder and said something to me. It didn't look like she knew.

After she left I lay on the bed. Silence permeated the room. It sank into the walls, the floor. It sank into Boone and me.

I flipped from my right to left side, then rustled the sheets to try and stave off the silence. Boone watched me, his blue eye almost luminescent in the failing light. Every time I tried to go back to sleep, all I could think of was Sholpan lying on the ground in a pool of red. There was no way I could leave her, wherever she was.

It was dusk outside. Boone and I slipped out the door and into the hall. I hopped along on one foot searching for an unattended crutch. Another patient passed us in a wheelchair being pushed by a man wearing white scrubs. I took a deep breath and tried to look nonchalant. I mean, it's not like it was a prison or something, right? I leaned against the wall and waved when they got close enough to greet. They smiled and waved back, passing me by without any trouble.

Boone wagged his tail. Glad to be up doing something. He probably had to pee really bad too.

We made it to the stairwell. Halfway down the hall I'd realized a crutch wouldn't work with my broken arm and hurt leg being on the same side. Stairs were okay though. I sat on the top step. Then eased myself down one. And another. And another after that. By the time we got to the bottom my entire body ached like I'd been dragged through the trees all over again. But I was going to find Sholpan no matter what. Even if it killed me. I owed her that. She and Boone were all I had left.

If I was Sholpan, where would I be? Chasing deer. Eating piles of turds. Mooching off the closest friendly person available.

Bleeding to death in a pile of leaves somewhere.

"Boone, find Sholpan. Sholpan. Go on." Boone just looked up at me and leaned into my bad leg again. "Go find her," I hissed. But to be honest, he was the only thing keeping me upright.

I was glad for it being dusk. People were heading indoors, and nobody seemed to notice the grey hospital gown or the fact that I looked like something from The Mummy. At least the gown provided actual coverage, as opposed to those horrid butt-baring things back home.

Together Boone and I hobbled across the street. I leaned against a building.

"Find Sholpan," I urged again.

This time he put his nose in the air and swiveled his ears. He trotted ahead, turning his head side to side in order to catch the scent. I scrambled along the side of the building to keep up with him.

He had something. Maybe he couldn't talk, but I could see it in the way his legs stiffened and his ears pricked. Just like getting a whiff of boar out in the woods at papa's old place. I hoped she was somewhere in the city. The idea of going back out in the forest after dark with only one working arm and leg didn't seem so awesome. I'd do it if she was out there though. She needed us.

By the time we'd gone one block, it was fully dark. I clenched my jaw and stepped down with my bad leg. It wobbled under my weight. The wound burned, but it held me up. I took another step. And another.

_It's just pain,_ I told myself. _Get over it._

It went from sharp and stabbing to dull and throbbing. That was better. Boone and I picked up the pace. We covered a good portion of the city, I guessed maybe three or four miles.

A smooth, low voice came from the darkness behind us.

I froze up. It sounded familiar but I couldn't put my finger on why. Boone looked back over his shoulder, still in tracking mode, and acknowledged the speaker with a cursory tail wag. I relaxed at that. Boone was always the best character judge.

A man stepped out of the shadows. It was the same masked man from the hospital.

"Excuse me," I said. "Do you speak English?"

He cocked his head to one side and gave me a troubled look.

"Because I need to find my dog. She's hurt, and you... have no idea what I'm talking about."

He stood with his hands in his pockets, just watching me. I wondered if he really had a pug or if that part was a hallucination.

"Come on Boone," I called, "Let's find Sholpan."

His eye widened. "Sholpan," he repeated.

I faced him, "Yes, Sholpan." My voice shook a little. Boone trotted over to me and braced me upright.

He held his hand up at Sholpan's shoulder height, then used both hands to indicate her length. "Sholpan," he said.

He'd really seen her. She really was somewhere.

"Where is she?" I choked on the words. He reached a hand out. I jerked back away from his grasp and flattened myself against the wall. Pink haired nurses was one thing, but masked strangers? Just, no.

Boone shuffled over to him, sat on his foot, and wagged his tail. Traitor. I ignored my dog and resumed my mincing walk through town. Only now I felt compelled to try extra hard not to limp. The masked man walked alongside me, this time keeping a respectful distance.

He kindly pointed the way at the next two corners. At the third he stepped in front of me and shook his head.

"Don't try and stop me," I warned.

He pointed at my leg. The bandage was soaked through again. It ran down my leg, warm and slick. I'd left a trail of bloody footprints for the past twenty feet or so. Lovely.

Before I could pull away, he stepped in close and lifted me into his arms. My good arm was pinned against his chest. Darkened buildings flashed past as he ran through the streets.

We couldn't have been too far away. He only carried me for a minute or so. The man set me down on the steps of a wooden house at the edge of the forest. A dog barked. A big dog. It sounded more like a bear grumbling than any dog I'd heard. The door flew open and a woman stood silhouetted against the light inside.

They spoke rapidly back and forth. He took hold of my arm and guided me through the door. A massive wolf like dog lay in the corner. The woman had dark hair, and a long triangular red tattoo on each cheek.

A piercing whine cut through their conversation.

"Sholpan!" I shouted.

Something thudded against a door. It flew open, and my dog burst out. She flew across the room like a magical Narnian llama creature and knocked me flat on my back. I started laughing. She fussed, whined, and stabbed me in the eye with her freezing cold nose. Sholpan, Master of the Pokey Nose. I'd never been more glad. Not since the day she took her first breath in the palm of my hand.

She slid to the floor and sidled up next to me. The woman laughed too. She pointed to Sholpan's shoulder and said something.

There was a bald spot where the knife had hit her. But here she was, alive and safe. The woman left the room and came back with a box of supplies, and changed my bandage again.

"Thank you," I said. "Neither of you can understand me, but thank you so much for saving her."

The woman seemed to understand, even if she didn't comprehend the words I spoke. I went to stand up when she finished with my leg, but she stopped me. She chattered something and pointed at the masked man.

He lifted me into his arms again and carried me out the door. Boone sat outside in the dark, a lot farther behind than I thought he'd be.

The man broke into a run. Our surroundings blurred, Boone's frantic barking faded in the distance. My stomach lurched. Clay shingles clanked under his feet. Leaves and branches whipped around us. I twisted my head sideways. The ground was about thirty feet below. I snapped my face back toward him and buried it in his flak jacket.

What the heck was this guy?

He slowed, and I felt us climbing upward again. I risked opening my eye. Worst idea ever. He was balanced on a window ledge near the top of the hospital, with me hanging out over a very far drop.

It was easiest to just close my eye and pretend I never saw that.

Next thing I knew, I was sitting on the hospital bed again. He rubbed the back of his head, then made a move for the window. Enough was enough.

"W-what is up with the people here?" I blurted. "Are you some kind of ninja or something?"

He froze, then started laughing. "Hai!" He pointed to himself. "Ninja."

"You're a ninja."

He bowed low. "Hatake Kakashi."

"Ha- take?"

"Kakashi," he repeated.

If they were ninjas, maybe they were speaking Japanese. Damn. I didn't know any Japanese. I wracked my brain for random words or something I could have picked up from TV. There was that song from the 80s, how did it go... domo arigato Mr. Roboto, thank you very mucho, something like that. Mom used to love that stuff.

I bowed nervously. "Domo arigato, Hatake Kakashi."

His eye widened, then crinkled as he smiled.


	7. Chapter 7

Boone watched helplessly as Kakashi practically flew away from him, carrying his mistress off. Again.  
The old cur let out a whooping howl in pure frustration. Mari was right. What kind of weird place was this? Humans weren't supposed to run faster than dogs. Dogs weren't supposed to speak human language.

Backwards Town. That's what it was.

He huffed and shuffled back toward the village. Sholpan could take care of herself. It smelled like a safe place anyway. He lifted his head into the breeze, catching the scents drifting in. At least a thousand new trees for him to mark, restaurants to mooch from, a geriatric cat with a bladder infection a quarter mile to the east, the bloody footprints Mari left in the street...

_There._

Kakashi and Mari were upwind, to the northeast. Boone dragged himself up and into a weary trot. His paws were sore. He was hungry again and tempted to stay with Sholpan, at least for the night.

But, he'd promised Papa Cochon. He'd failed once today already, and Mari almost died because of it. Suddenly thirsty, he paused. The taste of those people's blood lingered in his mouth. Hogs were one thing. He'd put his teeth into hundreds, pinning them down by the ears or snout so Papa Cochon could catch up and finish them off with his knife. But humans? He'd never bit one before, much less killed one.

Boone traveled down the street. He found some discarded barbecue pork and took time for an evening snack. Kakashi's smell moved again, but Mari wasn't with him. It stopped nearby. Boone detoured out of sheer curiosity.

Normally strangers were held apart in high suspicion for a lengthy period, but after everything that had happened he trusted the man not to leave her in any danger. Besides, Pakkun thought very highly of him. It didn't seem like the sort of blind trust he saw in some younger dogs. It was more like the kind of respect he had for Papa Cochon. The kind earned when you were out hunting together, and your master fought and risked his life right alongside you.

Kakashi was inside some apartment building now. Boone passed through the area, lifted his leg and marked several bushes around the building before continuing on to the hospital.

The doors were locked tight. His nostrils quivered. So many new smells. Layers and layers of them, especially on the threshold of the hospital. But Kakashi hadn't brought her through this way.

He lifted his head. They'd gone up the side, and through a window. But how?

Boone paced underneath the side of the building. He scrambled at the sides and pulled himself up onto a first floor windowsill, but that was as high as he could go.

How did the people around here fly like that? He dropped back down, the grass cool and soothing to his aching paws. There was a lot of hurt people in the hospital, most of them hurt by other people. If humans around here could outrun dogs, he was going to have to find a way to catch up. And fast. Otherwise Mari would be in danger until they found a way back home.


	8. Chapter 8

Thank you everyone for all the reviews! I really appreciate it. Sorry it got slowed down with the holidays and all. This is a short update but hopefully they'll be back on track soon.

* * *

Dappled sunlight shone through the trees arching over the Inuzuka home. The shade was cool, and it smelled faintly of wet dog. Pakkun slouched next to Kakashi's leg, shooting him harassed looks.

Flanked by her dogs, Mari stumbled into the yard. One arm rested in a sling. Mari winced as Sholpan jabbed it repeatedly, and put out her other hand to calm the hound.

Hana was outside. She knelt on the ground, bandaging one of Akamaru's paws. Mari walked over and greeted her. Hana looked around and waved at Kakashi.

"Is Mari ready to move in then?" she called.

Kakashi bowed his head. "Yes, thank you for agreeing to watch over her."

Hana dusted her hands off and pushed herself upright. "No problem. We can always use an extra set of hands around here."

Oblivious to their conversation, Mari knelt and rubbed one of Akamaru's ears until he melted to the ground in a state of utter bliss. _Looks like Akamaru doesn't mind extra hands,_ Kakashi thought.

"Pakkun will stay with them and keep the hokage updated, He will translate for you if you need to ask the dogs anything specific." He ignored the force of Pakkun's reproachful stare.

"That's good. Sholpan is a bit hard to understand sometimes," she admitted.

"Sakura says Mari's mostly healed up, just the obvious injuries but not much that needs tending."

Hana nodded and turned her attention to her new charge. Akamaru rolled on his back to let Mari rub his stomach. Her face was still covered with purple and green blotches, and she'd lost a fair bit of skin. He wondered who was underneath all the bruising and scrapes. A princess maybe. Or someone, something else.

"Pakkun," the little dog's ear twitched at his name. "If you get time, maybe you could teach Mari some words and things. She seems to learn fast."

He sighed and shifted his head onto his paws. "I'll do my best."

"All right then, see you later everyone." He waved.

Hana's voice reached him as he left through the trees. "Good luck on you mission, Kakashi-san!" He glanced over his shoulder. Mari stood with her, waving goodbye. Inexplicably, his breath caught in his throat. He hoped she'd be able to communicate by the time he got back. There were things he wanted to ask her.

Until then, he had to stay focused on the mission. The latest reports they'd gotten out of Kirigakure indicated definite ties to Akatsuki.


	9. Chapter 9

The day the people at the hospital gave my clothes back was the day Kakashi returned me to the place where Sholpan was being kept. My arm was still in a sling, but they'd taken the bandages off my face. I made the mistake of looking a mirror. Bad idea. Hopefully my skin would grow back some day.

I recognized the lady who'd helped Sholpan and fixed my bandage the night Boone and I'd gone searching for her. She was working on a giant white dog and waved at me when I said hi. That dog was awesome. He had a poofy forehead, like an akita or a kuvasz. I can never resist mooshing a poofy forehead. His fur was so soft too, like digging my fingers into a mound of cotton. The best part was that he didn't mind.

Kakashi and the woman talked for a little bit, then he swooped up into the trees. I watched him go and waved, hoping he'd come back soon. This was such a weird place and familiar faces, er, familiar people that is, were in short supply. His dog seemed to know he was leaving and looked really depressed about it.

After he was gone, the lady motioned for me to follow. My dogs harassed the big white one while I went along behind her. She pointed to the house and said something, then we toured the yard. There were a lot of dogs. And dog messes. I hopped over a huge steamy one. She pointed at the big white dog and said, "Akamaru." Then to three giant malamute-looking dogs and said three more words. I repeated after her under my breath, trying to get the hang of the language.

She pointed to herself and said, "Hana." Since I knew her name now, I bowed and thanked her. It seemed like you couldn't go wrong doing that around here, and it worked. She smiled and beckoned me to follow.

We went inside the little house. It was kind of a mess. Dirty clothes were heaped around the room. The smell of burned food and funk of unwashed dishes hit my nose, along with dog smell. My inner neat freak screamed at me to gather the dishes up and start a load in the sink.

Boone and Sholpan glued themselves to my legs as I followed her through the house, panting and staring up into my face with looks of dumb adoration. Kakashi's little pug trailed behind us, his head still drooping.

Hana waved me into a room in the back of the house. It was the only clean room, but it was totally immaculate. It smelled like the hospital, a sort of complex, bitter herbal smell. There was a table in the center. Well stocked shelves of medical supplies lined the walls, and one door that opened to the outside and another at the far end of the room. We passed through the far door. It opened into a little store room. The herb smell was overwhelming, but at the same time I kind of liked it. It was a warm, deep, woody sort of smell.

A little bed was made up on the floor in the corner. There was a mat, with a pillow and a grey blanket laid out on top. Hana gestured to it, then pointed at me, and mimed sleeping with her face on her hands.

It was my bed.

She meant for me to stay here. My breath hitched in my throat. Blabbering and thanking her, I did all I could think to do and bowed profusely. Sholpan dove onto my bed, to test it out of course, and Boone simply wagged his tail.

The creak of a door opening and someone calling Hana's name came from the clean room. She poked her head out. I caught a glimpse of a massive, massive dog with an eyepatch. It was bleeding pretty badly, and there was another woman with the same kind of tattoos Hana had on her face. Hana swept into action, administering medical aid to the injured dog. The other woman was oblivious to me, her attention focused wholly on the dog.

It was a good time to give Hana some space. I retreated to the bed and nudged Sholpan over. She rolled on her back and playfully punched my hurt arm, because she's a good sport like that.

The pug sat with his back to me. He was a weird dog. His little vest was blue, with a funny scribble face drawn on the back. And he probably could talk for real. I mean, I'd heard him do it a few times. My brain hadn't really processed it yet though. In fact, my brain had gone to great lengths to present all kinds of unlikely explanations. Like,_ someone has a tiny microphone in his vest and trained him to open and close his mouth when sounds come out of a tiny speaker_. Or, _he's a very clever robot_. And, _he's a wizard that got stuck in dog form_.

Okay brain, like that's very realistic...

Either way, it was easiest just to accept that for whatever reason, the dog appeared to speak and other people had conversations with it. I couldn't understand a thing he said, but Boone and Sholpan seemed to like him okay. Sometimes I felt like reaching out and petting him, but he put off a weird vibe. Like, it almost felt like it would be rude to pet him. Almost as rude as reaching out and patting Kakashi on the head. I giggled to myself. That guy seemed so mellow, he probably wouldn't let on even if it really did bother him.

I wished I could talk to him. Or to anyone for that matter. Sakura, Hana, it was nice that people were so generous. But, still lonely at the same time. I ran my fingers through the silky hair of Sholpan's' ears. At least I had those two. And languages could be learned. I'd just have to work extra hard to get fluent enough to have a regular conversation with someone.


	10. Chapter 10

Kakashi perched on a narrow branch and flattened himself against the tree trunk. Its rough bark pressed into his cheek. He'd already had to evade several patrols. They'd increased activity in this part of the forest, probably because of the two ninja Mari's dogs had killed. It would have been smarter take a different route.

He lingered near the place where he'd found her. The bodies of the two ninja were gone. Collected by their ANBU no doubt. The track was a week old by now. Of all his dogs only Pakkun's nose could have followed it. Briefly he toyed with summoning him.

_Stop getting distracted,_ he chastised himself. The hokage had given him a mission and that wasn't it.

Something bothered him about the situation though. Aside from the mysterious girl that couldn't speak their language that is. The Kirigakure ninja should have had another teammate. Where were they when Mari got attacked?

His blood ran cold. Could she be the third? It wasn't unheard of for the Hidden Mist to sacrifice their own people for the sake of gaining the upper hand. It could have been a setup.

Sakura insisted Mari's chakra circulatory system was virtually undeveloped. But she could still be a spy. They could have taken a villager as a volunteer. Injuring her made it all the more convincing. But then, if she was a villager she wasn't the teammate.

A heaviness settled in his gut. He didn't want it to be true, but that scenario made more sense than anything else so far. He'd have to tell the hokage. Unsettled, he moved out of the area. Closer to his target.

* * *

Boone padded across freshly mopped floors, through the dark. He couldn't see very well, even in daylight. Not that it mattered. His nose led him clear of any obstacles, straight to where the little pug that spoke human language slept.

Well, pretended to sleep anyway.

He crouched near the small dog. "Hey, Pakkun."

The pug's breathing stayed deep and even. But his heart rate went up. Just a little.

"I can tell you're awake," Boone said.

Pakkun opened an eye. "What do you want?"

"I need your help."

"Why?"

"You know things. Like, how does Kakashi and those other humans fly around like that? And how do you and Akamaru and the other dogs keep up with them?"

"They're ninjas, and we're ninja dogs." His eye slipped closed again. Boone was determined not to let the conversation end there.

"Mari almost died because I don't know how to protect her from ninjas. I'm not strong enough to keep up with someone like you or Kakashi. And if she gets attacked again, it will be my fault for not being strong enough to protect her."

Pakkun lifted his head and yawned. "No, it'll be the attacker's fault for attacking her in the first place."

Boone's hackles rose. "That's not what I mean," he growled. "Right now I know I'm too weak to do anything. If I don't do something to correct that, and someone is able to hurt her, it will be my fault." He took a deep breath. "Besides, I promised Papa Cochon nothing would happen to her. And I already failed once. It can't happen again."

The little brown dog grumbled under his breath. He shifted back and forth. Boone settled down onto his side to wait for an answer.

"This goes against my better judgement, but Kakashi did say to keep her safe. And while it's true that I'm a ninja dog, I'm not very suited to combat." A twinge of regret filled his voice. "It's also clear that there is nobody more dedicated to the job than you are.

Boone sat up, his insides swelling with hope. "Does that mean yes?"

"It means that if anybody asks, you picked up some techniques while staying at the Inuzuka dog house. It's not going to be anything fancy. Just basic chakra control, to enhance your movement and sensing ability."

The floor vibrated with a telltale skittering and thumping. Both dogs looked at each other and groaned. Sholpan skidded to a halt on top of Boone. He growled and shook her off.

"Sorry!" she panted. "What are you teaching him? Can I learn too?" She shivered with excitement, stabbing at Pakkun with her long pointed nose.

"Stop that," Boone snapped. "It's rude. And you're not learning anything. You already move too fast. You have no self control. And part of why Mari got injured is because you dragged her instead of paying attention to what was happening."

"Not true." Sholpan shrank back from his bared teeth. "That's not fair. If I hadn't run, she would have died in the explosion. It's lucky she put her arm through the leash."

Pakkun sat up on his haunches. "That doesn't change the fact that you're completely immature and impulsive. If you learned any ninja arts, you'd just use them to chase squirrels."

Sholpan got glassy eyed and grinned. "Squirrels... I mean, not like they aren't asking for it! If I could do that tree running thing, I could catch every squirrel." Her voice darkened. "TThey think they're so smart because they can fit in tiny holes and climb really fast. But they'd be so surprised. And then so dead."

Boone and Pakkun shared a look. No way were they going to let Sholpan learn anything.


	11. Chapter 11

Mopping one handed was one thing, but washing dishes? Impossible. I was determined to do something about it though. And unlike the mopping, I had help. A lot of help.

Dogs of all shapes and sizes sat in a half circle around me as I filled the sink with hot soapy water. Sholpan and Boone held a place of honor closest to my bad arm. I'd cleared and wiped off a small section of the counter for Pakkun to sit on. He was too awesome to sit on the floor. Plus, I was a little worried about the bigger dogs stepping on him.

One by one I laid the dishes in front of the dogs. All the burnt on, dried out, crusty food bits were efficiently dissolved and ingested by my crack team of dish washers. As each pan and bowl went from disgusting to gleaming, I set them in the sink. One by one they sank beneath a dense layer of steaming bubbles.

Pakkun talked to me as I worked. He'd been teaching me words for a lot of things, which was nice because Hana was pretty busy most of the time.

"Akamaru?" a voice called. The huge white dog wagged its tail. Kiba rounded the corner into the kitchen, his eyes widening as he took in the scene. "Hi Mari!" he said. And then something like, "Whoa, blah blah looks good." He made some more appreciative sounds and rubbed his dog on the head.

He opened some cupboards and loaded his arms up with bags of chips and things, pausing to take a huge fanged bite from an apple. Then said something else like, "Blah blah blah goodbye Mari!" Bits of chewed apple flew out of his mouth as he spoke. Small mountain of snacks teetering in his grip, he left with Akamaru trailing behind. Sholpan pranced out after them. She and the white dog seemed to be good friends now.

Better, but I still had a lot more language to learn.

Hana's family all had the same tattoos on their faces. She was the only normal looking one. The others had slit pupils like cats and longer fangs than people should have. I wondered if they were fully human. One thing I knew at least, they were good people regardless of what they looked like.

Pakkun tugged at my arm sling with his teeth, and pointed out several more things and gave me words for them. _Bouru. Haisuiko. Obun. _I repeated them after him.

We practiced more words as we cleaned. Thankfully, people ate with chopsticks here so I didn't have to wash any gross forks. So nasty, especially when they had old dried up food stuck between the tines.

An unexpected wave of grief swept over me as I slid another bowl into the sink. It came to rest against the others with a muffled clank. The silence was pressing in again, heavy against the grease spattered windows. I wished Kiba would come back and start slamming cupboards again. Boone tensed and stared at me.

_Papa's dogs surrounded me in a small kitchen, eagerly taking turns cleaning leftover chili from the pots and bowls. __Warm water sluiced through my fingers as I rinsed a plate clean. _

_The twang of banjo strings filled the air. His rich baritone voice warbled, hunting for the right notes and not quite finding them. A pair of__ Boone's blue eyed puppies joined his song, crooning and howling. __It was still the best thing I'd ever heard.  
_

_All the old Witness Tree dogs, my daddy, and me.  
_

_Then the silence came.  
_

The last time I'd stood in that kitchen it was empty. No smells of spicy tomato, no singing, no puppies. Just me, old Boone, and the heavy silence Papa'd left behind when he died. I'd smashed a plate to drive it away, back in that little old kitchen. Then another, and another, like the breaking glass could break a stillness that dense. Somehow, every broken plate left the silence a little heavier than before.

That was when I decided to leave Louisiana. Go back to mom's place in Oregon.

Then somehow I'd ended up here. Wherever here was. And there wasn't any going back. Not that mom cared, if she even noticed. She was too busy with her boyfriends to notice me. That's how it always was. And I had to stay busy myself. Keep moving, keep running, otherwise that silence might catch up. It might get me. And if that ever happened it would swallow me whole and I wouldn't be able to escape it again. I stared at the window, my eyes unfocused. Somehow, I didn't think it would find me here._  
_

* * *

Copy Ninja Kakashi flung himself aside. The heat of an explosion seared his brow. He ducked away from a second tag, then a third. The ground shuddered under his feet.

A cloying mist rose around him. Its sicky sweet odor even masked the stench of burned hair.

_Shit. I can't see or smell. _

His sharingan was useless. Summoning the dogs was useless in this stinking mist, they'd be just as vulnerable as him. His lithe fingers ran through a string of seals. The earth opened just enough to swallow him. A log replacement waited above ground, a decoy, as the mud gave way in front of him. He moved through the ground. Anything to escape that mist.

He wished Tsunade would stop sending him on solo missions. Not that he minded solitude, but it was nice to have someone to save your ass when things got bad. Sakura was busy with her medic study. Naruto, well, he wasn't very suited to information gathering. He was gone anyway, training with Jiraiya-sama. Sasuke was- he wouldn't think about that. Not now.

The replacement vanished. He felt a twinge of chakra loss at its demise.

Cold gritty mud parted and closed around him as he forged onward. He had to lose those ninja. The longer he dallied, the greater chance they'd realize who he was. If that happened, the whole mission would be compromised.


	12. Chapter 12

The rest of the day passed in a flurry of activity. I mastered the art of scooping dog turds one handed, balancing dried out ones as they rolled around on the blade of my shovel, and scooping up fresh pasty ones without smearing them across the grass. For fun, I found an old rotting board and stabbed it upright in the poop bin as a target. Pakkun and Boone watched impassively from a safe distance.

_Round one._

I stood about twenty feet away and lobbed a big wet pile that direction. It fell woefully short. I moved up another ten feet and scooped it out of the dirt. This time it hit the board with a satisfying splat and dripped into the bin.

_Awesome._

Round two involved some dry ones. It was impossible to learn as I went because each load had such different weights. Not to mention the aerodynamics varied wildly depending on moisture content.

Kiba sauntered into the yard, Akamaru and Sholpan trailing behind. He stared at me for a moment then burst out laughing.

"Hey Mari, blah blah blah blah!" He pointed dramatically at the bin and announced, "_Dainamikku Mākingu_!"

Akamaru leaped high above us. He twirled around, releasing a stream of urine that arced gracefully through the air and puddled in the bin. I dropped the shovel. Some day I was going to get used to this ninja stuff.

"Nice, Akamaru!" I shouted. He landed heavily, drew himself up, and wagged his tail. Sholpan leaped into the air. She cleared my head. I stood for a moment, stunned.

Sholpan whirled around and nosed up to my hand, grinning, her long plumey tail swinging gracefully from side to side. "Holy crap girly, you've been taking lessons." I rubbed her face as she pushed into me, trying not to think the huge amount of trouble she would get into with ninja powers.

Kiba and I took turns with the shovel, slinging messes at the target. He hit it every single time. Me? Well, I blamed my performance on the fact that my dominant arm was trapped in a sling.

Too soon, the sun crept over the horizon. Hana came home from wherever she spent the day. The smell of hot fresh food wafted from the bags she carried. She called to us and motioned toward the house.

Laughing, we made our way to the sink to wash off. I ran back to the store room to change clothes, pushing the door closed, peeling off the sling, then my shirt, and carefully maneuvering into a black tank top from the pile of clothes Hana had lent me. It exposed the red fleur de lis tattoo on my upper arm. My fingers brushed over my shoulder. The spot where that stupid evil gas mask ninja stabbed me was going to leave a nasty scar. I wrapped the sling back over my bad arm, covering the tattoo again.

Back in the main room, Hana and Kiba ate sitting cross legged on the floor. They motioned me over and pushed a box of food in front of me. I sat and opened it. Mercifully, whatever it was, was served on skewers so I didn't have to mess with chopsticks.

"Domo arigato, Hana!"

She smiled at me, and nodded. I took a big bite. It tasted as awesome as it smelled.

It wasn't long before they both went to bed. I paced a bit at first, trying to stave off the silence hemming in at the edges of the room. That wouldn't work all night though, and I didn't want to keep them up. Sholpan and I went outside together and did a little heelwork and practiced our hand signals. She had a lot easier time following those at a distance than when I shouted at her. Eventually it got too dark to see so I gave up and made myself go to my little room.

Boone and Pakkun tailed me in. Halfway there Sholpan deserted us to mug Kiba and Akamaru in his room. I was glad everyone seemed to get along, and especially glad that Kiba and Akamaru could keep up with her.

Back in my room, I eased down onto the mat. Pakkun hopped onto a wooden crate and laid his head on his paws. I reached my arm up the back of my shirt and unclipped my bra, shrugged the straps down my arms and pulled it out from under my shirt. It felt weird to take my shirt off in front of Pakkun so that worked out pretty well. Just in case he really was a wizard in a dog body. Even if he wasn't, he could still talk and I wasn't sure if he was the kind of dog that would mention something like that to Kakashi.

_Kakashi._

My stomach tightened. The silver haired ninja didn't seem that old. He was really strong for one thing, and his voice had that low, smooth quality I associated with someone younger. Plus he smelled like... I closed my eyes, trying to recall his scent through the thick smells permeating the room. Sort of musky, but also kind of woodsy like the trees. Other sensations flickered through memory, weightlessly soaring over rooftops, the way his lean muscles flexed when he lifted me in his arms. I swallowed and wondered if he'd come back.

I laid on my side, rustling my legs now and then to stop the silence from getting too close. Pakkun's ear twitched in annoyance. Boone was curled against my back, on the edge of the mat. Suddenly I felt like a jerk for not offering Pakkun something softer.

"Pakkun." I whispered. I wracked my brain, grasping for the right words. They were in there somewhere. It took a moment for find them. "Here, pillow." I slid it out from under my head, toward him. He stretched, ambled over to it, turned in several circles and laid down.

The sound of the dogs breathing filled the darkness around me. Grateful for that at least, I rolled on my stomach and finally laid still.


	13. Chapter 13

Pakkun lay awake pondering Mari's sudden nervousness that afternoon. She rolled onto her back, a trickle of drool from coming from the corner of her mouth.

Kakashi was right, she did seem to learn fast. It was frustrating though. He wished they could talk to her easily. Or that Boone or Sholpan could speak her language. Then they could translate directly for her. He stood on the pillow, stretched, then shambled over to Mari's sleeping form.

Her arm was tucked under her head, making a little nest under her chin. Pakkun slid into the pocket of warmth and curled up against her chest. Mari's breathing had evened out. Her heartbeats slowed to that of someone in deep sleep.

The smell of the herbs and medicines overpowered his nose. Pakkun sighed, taking some comfort in knowing the place was well guarded by Inuzuka ninken. The three of them lay in the darkness, seconds turning to minutes. Minutes turning to hours, until he was finally almost asleep.

Soft footsteps padded outside. Human footsteps. He lifted his ears. There were at least three people. He knew he really shouldn't worry. Hana and Kiba's dogs would take care of intruders. But-

The doorknob turned.

"Mari? Are you awake?" It was Hana.

Boone scrambled upright, hackles raised. He let out a bleary grumble.

"She's asleep, what's going on?" said Pakkun. He sniffed at the air and sneezed. It was impossible to detect anybody else through the haze of herbs. Two shadows wearing ANBU masks appeared at Hana's shoulders.

"The ANBU have come for Mari," she said, coming forward into the little room. She stooped next to the girl and shook her. "Wake up."

Mari's eyes cracked open. She rubbed at them with her free hand and mumbled something in her own language. Hana helped her sit up. The two ANBU crowded into the room, grasped Mari's arms and pulled her to her feet. Her eyes shot wide open and she yelped. Boone lunged at them with bared teeth, but was kicked back against the wall with hardly a glance. He sank to the floor wheezing for breath. Mari said something in a choked voice and tried to pull away from them, to reach Boone. The one wearing a tiger mask yanked her backward.

Hana drew herself up and used her best angry medic voice. "Don't be too harsh on her. Especially the arm. She isn't recovered from her injuries yet."

The other ANBU gave her a curt nod, then turned to Pakkun. "You're one of Kakashi's ninken, right?"

"Yeah." Pakkun cast a worried glance at the old dog floundering on the floor. Hana knelt by him and began tending whatever damage had been done.

"Come with us. Ibiki wants to speak with you."

The color left Hana's face. Pakkun's teeth clicked together, he caught himself before he scowled.

"Of course." He turned to Boone and said to him in Dog, "stay here with Hana. I'm going with them to make sure Mari is kept safe."

With that, the ANBU left, Pakkun following close behind them.

* * *

Cool air bit at my face as I sailed over rooftops, suspended by the arms between two ninja wearing animal masks. My eyes watered. With every jolt my arm bone shifted in the shoulder socket, the dull ache building with each passing second.

_Stupid._ I shouldn't have yelped like that when they first grabbed me. Boone wouldn't have lunged at them, and he'd be okay instead of writhing on the floor. Sharp pain shot through my shoulder. I bit my tongue. That was all my fault. I had to stop being such a wuss.

We stopped at a tall domed building with dark windows. The masked men pulled me through a side door, where other masked men waited. My knees shook as the ninja set me on my feet. I tried hard to make them be still.

The sound of my bare feet echoed down the long hall as we walked, ninjas flanking me in eery silence. A man stood next to a closed door. Scars crisscrossing his broad face furrowed with his glare. He shoved his hands into the pockets of a dark trench coat.

He spoke, his low, curdled voice sent a tremor through me. A deep gravelly voice behind me answered. _Pakkun._ The little dog trotted up and stood next to me. He and the scarred man went back and forth.

They brought me into the room. It stank, like old meat. Pakkun didn't follow. The man pointed to a cold metal stool, so I sat on it. The metal leeched the warmth out of my legs where it touched the skin left bare by my shorts.

The heavy door clanked shut. All the ninja were gone. I was alone with the man. My heart pounded against my ribs as I sat so still, perched up there.

He said something to me. I didn't understand, so I just shook my head and shrugged. He repeated it again. I replied in English this time.

"I don't understand what you're saying. Does anybody here speak English?"

His frown deepened and he took a step closer. I tried a different one, not holding much hope for a very good response.

"Quoi c'est ton nom? Comment tu t'appelles?" The words glided out of my mouth. A pang of homesickness hit me as I said them. "Je m'appelle Marie."

A predatory smile cut through his face. A fresh gash among the old. My mouth went dry. He grabbed my arm. Twisted it.

It cracked.

I hit the floor, the frigid tile a welcome relief. I focused on the cold. Shivered as it battled the searing heat in my shoulder. A shadow passed over me.

The voice spoke again. I babbled something back.

Wrong answer.

I clenched my teeth, tears streaming down my face. The bones of my wounded index finger splintered in his grasp.

He said something again. The pounding in my ears drowned him out.

Another bone popped.

_How do I make him stop?_ Another flash of pain layered on top of the others. _Is he going to kill me?_

Head spinning and clinging to consciousness, I started to speak. I didn't know what he wanted me to say, so I was going to say everything. Even if I couldn't do it in their language.

It didn't help.

I kept going anyway. When I ran out of things to say in English, I said them in Cajun. When that didn't work, I choked out the words Pakkun had taught me through the warm snot and tears running down my face.

"_Hame, chazutsu-_"

Nonsensical, random, I was sure it wasn't what he wanted.

"_Takoyaki, osuinu, sentaku-_"

But it was all I had to give.

* * *

Boone sensed the change when the masked men came for her. Hana seemed okay with them at first, but then her pulse fluttered like a nervous rabbit. Then they hurt her. Pakkun tried to reassure him, to convince him to stay, but even the ninken was thrown off by something.

Mari was in danger.

Staggering to his feet, he shook off the soreness in his ribs. She needed saving, and he'd gotten a little better with Pakkun's lessons. Sholpan had been taking her own lessons with Akamaru. He toyed with the idea of waking her. As much as he hated to admit it, he could really use her help. But then, she was just as likely to get distracted and chase cats across the rooftops all night.

He crept out the door. The three Haimaru brothers watched him leave, but didn't get up to stop him or alert Hana. They understood.

The soft ground was refreshing under his paws. He ran away from the Inuzuka home, normally at first, then directed chakra to his legs like Pakkun taught him.

If he wasn't so worried the boost would have been exhilarating. He bounded onto an awning, then a window ledge, then a roof. Once he reached a high point, he lifted his nose into the wind. The smells of the village tickled his brain. Thousands of smells, maybe millions. He turned in a circle, sifting through them to find the one he held most dear.

_There._

He set off toward the high domed building, wondering what he could do to stop the ninjas when he reached her. They'd kicked him into the wall before he could even scratch them.

There was one ninja that could be trusted though. One that was sympathetic to dogs, and had helped his mistress more than once before.

Veering to the south, he bee lined for the apartment. His nose caught scents as he flew over rooftops, a medley of delicious foods, human scents, strange bugs and dirt and animals. Winnowing through the human scents, he singled out Kakashi's. It was fresh from tonight.

Outside the apartment building he easily bounded up the railings and onto a ledge. The window was partly open. He shoved his head through the gap and summoned a deep, booming _woof_.

Kakashi's voice came from inside. The ninja sauntered over, saying something that could have passed for gentle scolding as he opened the window wide enough for Boone to fit through. Boone tumbled in and paced back and forth, making what Mari liked to call "angry wookie noises."

_Stupid me can't talk. That would be really handy right about now._

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you so much to all the reviewers and folks who are following along. I tried to give you a longer chapter this time, and have a sizable portion of the next finished. This just seemed like a good chapter break. Let me know if you have any feedback! Good or bad, you won't hurt my feelings.


	14. Chapter 14

To say that Kakashi was surprised to see Boone outside his window in the middle of the night was an understatement. For one, the animal was practically welded to Mari's side. For two, he didn't think a civilian dog had the skill to reach his windowsill.

Boone's claws clicked on the floor while he paced, warbling and howling in discontent. His slick brown fur prickled straight out, down the ridge of his spine and around his neck. Kakashi inhaled through his nose. Pakkun wasn't around. Maybe he'd stayed with Mari, wherever she was.

"All right, just calm down." He slipped a black shirt and flak jacket on. Then headband and gloves. Stifling a yawn, he followed the frantic dog back out the window.

Boone surprised him, leaping from the sill to the roof. _Looks like someone has been taking lessons,_ he thought. The dog led the way, through rooftop gardens, straight toward the hokage residence. Kakashi's stomach sank.

_Don't tell me. . ._

The dog's speed grew faster the closer they got. Ears pricked, his lips pulled back to bare long white teeth. Kakashi's brow furrowed. Why would they bring Mari in for questioning in the middle of the night?

He and Boone passed through the doors. Two ANBU stood watch inside.

The dog launched straight at them, jaws gaping wide.

Kakashi pivoted and snagged his collar, dragging the furious animal back before the stupid thing got himself killed.

"Kakashi-san, what are you doing here?" ox-mask asked.

"Well, this dog came and woke me up because he's convinced something horrible is happening to his owner."

The masked ANBU shared a glance. "You may come inside and wait until Ibiki-san is finished," tiger-mask offered. Boone gave an extra loud snarl at his words.

He tucked the flailing dog under his arm. "Mah, thank you," he murmured, and wandered down the hall.

Pakkun appeared at the end of the hall. "Kakashi, what are you doing here? And you," he said to Boone. "I told you to stay with Hana."

The dog snarled something back.

"Hey, you should take him out of here. He's not going to calm down as long as he can hear what's happening in the interrogation room."

Kakashi eyed the snarling beast in his grasp. Pakkun was right, he was getting worse. But taking him away wouldn't make it better because he'd just come back, or hurt himself trying. He flipped open a pocket on his vest and pulled out a vial of clear liquid, dripping a bit into Boone's gaping mouth.

"Give him a minute and he'll settle."

Pakkun nodded in understanding. Moments later Boone's movements slowed until there was only the gentle rise and fall of his ribs. Kakashi laid the dog out of the way on the floor.

"He's never going to forgive them." Pakkun looked at the unconscious dog uneasily. "What are you going to do now?"

Kakashi sagged against the wall and pulled out his book to pass the time. "Wait until he's finished I guess. Why did they bring her in the middle of the night?" He'd mentioned his suspicions to Tsunade during his report. She didn't seem overly concerned, but said something about the interrogation corps checking into it. He assumed Inoichi would just take a quick a peek into her mind to verify her story and it would be done with.

"Ibiki claims that her memories may be altered. He insists the only way to be sure Inoichi accesses the real ones is to break down any fabricated barriers in her mind first. And that it's easier to do when the subject is exhausted."

_"_I see._"_ He opened the book and flipped through the pages and shook his head._ Sadistic bastard.  
_

Pakkun watched him steadily. Kakashi took a deep breath, the salt tang of fresh blood tweaking his nose. If he could smell it, no wonder Boone had reacted the way he did.

Hoping for her sake that it wouldn't be too much longer, he began to read. Pakkun shifted closer to him, worriedly staring down the hall. Minutes dragged by. His eye focused and unfocused on the dimly lighted page, rereading the same sentence a dozen or so times. A female voice, muffled by the wall, reached his ears.

It was Mari's voice. She spoke faster and said more than he'd ever heard from her. It was all in her language, voice rising in little bursts and cut with small silences.

Her words shifted, becoming more singsong, more musical. The cadence lilted a bit here and there, spoiled by abrupt silences. It almost sounded like a second, different language he hadn't heard before. There was a long silence where he thought the interrogation was finished. Ibiki said something to her, followed by a wet snap and a hiccuping sound. She began to speak again. This time her voice wavered, clumsily grasping for unfamiliar sounds in his language. She spoke haphazardly, listing an assortment of kitchen implements.

Another crack.

Her voice faltered, and she choked back what was clearly a sob. His chest constricted. He stared at the page, not even seeing it anymore. If he interfered, it might make things much worse for her. Ibiki might almost be finished at this point.

But then, Ibiki might not be ready to stop anytime soon.

Mari's heaving voice dropped down to a strangled whisper. He strained his ears for her words, desperate to hear and not wanting to know anything about it at at the same time.

"_H-Hana, Kiba._"

Kakashi squeezed his eye shut and closed the book.

"_Please. Kakashi. __Please._"

The plea, soft as it was, hit him like a fist in the gut. He slid the book back into his weapon pouch and walked toward the door to the interrogation room. The cold steel of the doorknob turned in his grasp. He pushed it open.

Mari lay mostly still, curled up on her left side with her arms clasped tight against her chest. A dark smear stained the floor near her head. The only light a candle. Ibiki glared at him, the writhing candlelight strapping his marred face with bands of shadow.

"Why are you here?" he said.

"Someone called my name."

The two jounin faced each other in silence. Kakashi flexed his hand, wondering how much more defiance he could get away with on Ibiki's turf. The torture specialist was the first to speak.

"She broke down. I am finished. Once Inoichi examines her and presents his report to the hokage, her fate will be determined."

"So he is coming now?"

Ibiki shrugged. "I hadn't expected my part to be so brief. She can wait until morning."

"Do you object to her receiving medical treatment before then?"

He regarded Mari with the hooded gaze of a cat that longed to continue wounding some unfortunate bird. "If you must." The trenchcoat flapped as he turned. "I'll inform my men. She doesn't leave this room though."

"Pakkun will remain with her until Inoichi arrives."

Kakashi's words hung in the air. At the silence, he wished he'd worded it differently. More like a suggestion than an order. Ibiki didn't like others giving orders in his domain. The corner of the head interrogator's mouth twitched downward, but he kept walking. The door closed behind him, leaving Kakashi alone with Mari.

"Hey," he crouched by the girl. "He's gone now. It's safe."

She didn't respond. Even though her eyes were open, they weren't seeing anything of her surroundings. He'd seen that look before. They were the eyes of someone who'd escaped torture in the only they knew how.

"Mari," he put a hand on her shoulder and jostled her. "Mari wake up. It's over."

Her eyes went a little wider. She flinched away from his touch. He drew his hand away and spoke again.

This time recognition lit up her eyes. Good. "Kakashi?"

"Yo." He waved two fingers at her and smiled reassuringly, knowing she understood little of his words but very much of his manner. It seemed to put her at ease. Pakkun found his way into the room beside them. She brightened considerably at the dogs presence.

"Hey, what's wrong with her hand?" The little dog sniffed around her. "You should probably do something about it."

Perturbed, Kakashi pushed down the worry so it wouldn't show. "Mari, let me see your hand." He held his out. She didn't uncross her arms. He frowned. There was definitely an injury there.

"Pakkun, try to get her to uncross her arms so I can see."

"Sure." Pakkun walked up to Mari's face. "Hey, if you sit up and let Kakashi see your hand, I'll sit on your lap and you can touch my pads. They're really soft." He rested a little paw on her nose. "See?" He nudged her nose with his foot. She took a deep breath, rolled onto her back, then into a sitting position.

Her left shoulder was sunken and out of shape, dislocated. She hugged the injured arm tight against her. He reached out again, pointing to the hand hidden in the crook of her other arm.

"Please, Mari."

Frowning, she peeled her right arm away from it but wouldn't pull it away from her body. He leaned in closer, and swore under his breath. It didn't look much like a hand anymore. The skin was flayed open. Waxy white shards of bone protruded from wet patches of tissue. The front of her black tank top was soaked in blood.

"Ibiki, you went too far," he growled.

The injury was beyond him. Sakura was the best one to handle it. As Tsunade's apprentice she was the least likely to get in trouble. If Tsunade did have a problem, then as her sensei, he could step in and take the blame instead. Besides, Ibiki was less likely to interfere with any medical decisions Sakura made.

"Pakkun, go get Sakura. Tell her it's an emergency."

The little dog vanished in the blink of an eye.

He turned his eye back to Mari's hand_, _a wave of anger washing through him. On the surface it was all for Ibiki, but when he looked closer it was mostly for himself. He'd brought her to Konoha. Then he'd gotten suspicious. She trusted him. She trusted all of them and look what happened to her. _  
_

And Boone. The dog was smart, and Pakkun was right. He'd never forgive them. Once Sakura arrived he'd have to take him somewhere before he woke, and keep him away until things were sorted out. After seeing the lengths Mari went to for Sholpan, he had a feeling that nothing would destroy her faster than if something happened to the old dog.

Mari watched him, her pale eyes wide. She trembled, and he noticed with alarm that her skin had taken on a greyish pallor.

_Sakura_, he thought._ Hurry._


	15. Chapter 15

I never thought I'd wish for silence.

Burning pain seared through splintered bones, torn flesh, and flickered up my arm. No matter how hard I fought it, it spread. It filled me, my world. No matter how much I talked, how desperately I tried to comply with whatever it was he wanted me to do or say, the pain grew until it consumed everything else.

Eventually I ran out of words; of my words, of their words. I croaked out the names of the only people I knew. The people I thought I could trust. _Hana, Kiba._

Somewhere deep inside my core, there was a sliver of hope. Hope that one of them would come, and stop him. That they'd stop him for me because I was so goddamn weak I couldn't save myself, couldn't bear the tortuous pain much longer.

_Kakashi._

My headed pounded. I clenched my eyelids shut. A fresher hurt, unexpected, washed over the physical pain. Hana was with the masked ninjas when they took me. Did that mean she didn't want me around any more? And poor Boone... I tried to focus my thoughts and shivered on the floor.

A cool breeze fluttered over me, cutting through the stagnant air. My torturer paused. His trench coat rustled as he stood. I winced when he spoke.

This time another voice answered in my stead. A man's voice, low and soft. I thought I recognized it. They spoke back and forth, until, mercifully, the torturer left.

If I had the energy, I would have hugged the mystery man and cried with relief. Instead I lay still, drifting on the brink of unconsciousness. Or maybe it was consciousness. Maybe the torture was a horrible dream. Maybe this whole ninja place was a nightmare, and if I tried harder I would wake up in my dusty loft apartment in the horse barn. Sholpan would stab me awake with her freezing wet nose any second, wanting to be let out to pee.

The horses would need feeding. Then I'd shovel out their stalls. And that was okay, because in real life my hand was fine.

A soft paw pressed against my face, too small to belong to my dogs. A very deep voice mumbled at me. _Pakkun, the talking robot wizard pug_, my brain helpfully volunteered.

Maybe not.

If this was a dream then it didn't matter that my hand was flayed apart. It didn't matter that the front of my shirt was saturated with blood. It didn't matter that some random ninja had kicked the crap out of my dog, because I'd wake up and things would be fine and normal again.

I struggled to a sitting position. My head swam, I blinked hard.

Then again, if this was all real those things didn't matter anyway. For the first time since my dad died I welcomed the silence. Embraced the cold that numbed the burning pain. I wondered what it was like when the silence really caught you. If it made the pain stop. Did you just float out of your body and become a ghost? Was there a tunnel of light? Maybe my dad would meet up with me. I wondered if ghosts in their world went to a different place than ghosts in my world. That would be shitty indeed.

The man's voice interrupted my thoughts. "Please, Mari."

I blinked my eyes into focus, startled to see Kakashi crouching in front of me and pointing at my hand. Oh hell no. I hugged it tighter. My eyes watered at the sharp pain. Okay, maybe he could do something about it.

Sucking in a sharp breath, I peeled my good arm away from my stomach. The bad one, well, I couldn't have moved it if I wanted.

He said something that was probably cussing, then talked to Pakkun. The little dog left. My panic rose a little at that. Even though he was just a tiny dog there was something comforting about him being there. Maybe because he was a dog. Or maybe because he was familiar. Or maybe, because I thought he might be my only friend.

Kakashi still crouched in front of me. For once I wished he wasn't wearing a mask, so I could tell whether he was being friendly or if I should be afraid of him too. He seemed kind of agitated. Then I made the mistake of glancing down at my hand. I fought the urge to vomit. My head swam and I started to shake. My hand would never be the same, even if somebody did make the effort to put it pack together.

He reached out and steadied my good shoulder. I leaned into his grasp, struck with a sudden desire to lay back down. It was so cold now. I was so tired, everything around me a blur of candlelight and shadow. I just wanted to sleep. Maybe if I slept, the silence would really would come.

* * *

When I woke the sun was shining. My body still felt like shit, but I wasn't in that dark windowless room anymore. The pink haired girl from the hospital, at least I thought it was the same girl, sat with me.

"Mari-san, blah blah drink," she said. She pushed a cup toward me on a tray. This wasn't like the room I had in the hospital. I lay on a bed, only it was hard, more like a gurney. The room was bigger and it had a bunch of chairs. I blinked the sleep from my eyes. Pakkun sat on a chair next to the girl.

My arm was back in a sling. The shoulder wasn't dislocated anymore so that was a relief. A thick swath of white bandages wrapped my hand. I didn't really want to know at this point, but at least they didn't see the need to amputate it. Yet.

Kakashi was gone, There were strangers now; a black haired woman wearing a black robe and a little pig all dressed up and wearing a pearl necklace followed her around. I wondered if the pig could talk too. Then a blond man with a ponytail. No, not a ponytail. It was the most epic mullet I'd ever seen. Folks would have practically worshiped him back home.

Choking back a slightly hysterical laugh, I grabbed the cup and took a swig. It burned on the way down, but didn't threaten to come back up right away so I chugged the rest.

The man put a cool hand on my forehead. Our surroundings melted away and my muscles clenched. I was back in the torture room. Then it faded to green, Hana and Kiba's home in its little forest grove. Something probed deeper into my thoughts and I slipped again, this time feeding my boss's horses, their velvet muzzles nosing over the sweet hay flakes I dropped into the hay racks for them. My dogs pranced outside the stalls in anticipation of their morning stroll through the woods.

I relived that first ninja attack.

It was the oddest feeling, someone sliding into your mind like that. If I tried hard enough I caught a glimpse of him here and there, but it took too much energy to pin him down for long. Mostly it was like the sense you get when somebody is watching but you can't figure out who. And you can't direct your thoughts as easily as normal, like someone else was rifling through memories and picking out the ones they thought were interesting.

Flashes went by, like a movie on fast forward. He reached out with a thought and snagged another memory. Papa, Boone, Boone's dead sister Betty, and I were in his little boat. The outboard motor sputtered as it churned up a froth of green water and we streaked through the shadowy trunks of banyan trees in the swamp. Clouds of mosquitoes billowed against the buffer of moving air between us and them.

Hundreds of slivers of memories streaked by with each passing second. A hog hunt with my dad and his friends, driving through town, and dozing through math class at the university. The smell of an alligator's innards. Lopsided birthday cake littered with candles. The crush of bodies dancing in the streets among colored banners and glitter and beads as music blared above the crowd. It went on and on until he must have found whatever he wanted. Just as abruptly, I was back in the room sitting on the hard bed.

The mullet man blinked and closed his eyes, his brows knotted. Everyone in the room stared at him, expectant. Everyone except me. Exhaustion washed over me. Whatever the pink haired girl gave me must have been good, because I wasn't sore anymore. Unable to keep my eyes open any longer, I slumped back onto the bed.


End file.
